US intelligence not ruling out Musharraf's impeachment

PTIFeb 28, 2008, 09.18am IST

WASHINGTON: Although they do not have the numbers, the two major parties in Pakistan could still impeach President Pervez Musharraf if they get backed by independents, a top US intelligence official has said.

"We are watching very closely now to see how the coalition is formed, who the members will be and who the prime minister might be," the Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnel said.

Stating that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif had "an agenda to impeach President Musharraf", McConnel said that the PPP and PML(N) "do not have the votes to do that, but if they had independents join them, they could possibly have the votes".

On being asked the Chairman of Senate Armed Services Committee Carl Levin about the fairness of the polls, he said "all the reporting I saw was they were reasonably -- by Pakistani standards, they were reasonable and fair. The numbers of people voting were a little higher than anticipated and a little higher than average for Pakistan. It was over 40 per cent".

Responding to a question that if the polls were a repudiation of Islamic extremism, he said "What I would highlight is those Islamic extremists that had been serving in the assembly were defeated in this election. So at that level, the parties that won are more secular. So there is some level of repudiating extremism".